


A Matter of Dinner

by Kiiratam



Series: Tandem Tests with RWBY & JNPR [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Gen, Tests, Weiss suffers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-21 15:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21077501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: Weiss is doing all the work. Again.Takes place between Volumes 1 and 2. (My BMBLB fic index)





	A Matter of Dinner

"So how long do we have left?" Nora hopped up on the side of the table, legs swinging. Weiss resisted the urge to strangle her. Mainly because it wouldn't work. Nora could probably just walk around with Weiss clinging to her neck. Part art installation, part necklace. _Here, we have the totally unique 'Schnee in Paroxyms of Rage'. Shall we start the bidding at one million?_

  
"We have ninety-three minutes left. It would go faster if you helped." It probably wouldn't, if Weiss was being honest with herself. She wasn't even sure why Nora was in Logistics. She absolutely did not have the math skills, or the head for logical organization, or even the base, conniving, Mantleborn cunning for creative inventory-taking.

  
Nora picked up one of Weiss's worksheets, looking over it as she idly curled the chair she was _supposed_ to be sitting in.

  
Glancing back over the page she was working on, Weiss tried to find her place. Food was done, spare parts were done, which left... munitions, of course. What was the formula for daily munition use in high-threat zones? She scanned her 'cheat sheet' that Professor Baphukile had given them permission to make and use for their end of semester exam. Nora hadn't even brought one. No _wonder_ she was at the bottom of the class.

  
"There's not enough food."

  
Weiss squeezed her eyes shut. Ninety more minutes with this idiot. She wouldn't scream at her. She was trying, she was trying. And Nora was fine, really. At least when she wasn't threatening Weiss' grade. "I ran the math, Nora. There's plenty."

  
"There really, really isn't."

  
"Everyone gets three combat rations a day, and there are five spare per day per 10-strong squad. That's exactly what the formulas want."

  
"Yeah, but not the people. Have you ever _had_ combat rations, Weiss?"

  
"No." Obviously.

  
"This is supposed to last, what, a month?"

  
"The deployment is for four weeks, with a possible one week extension in case of extreme Grimm activity. And they have _six_ weeks of food."

  
Nora switched arms. "Yeah, and after two weeks of nothing but combat rations, they're going to be spending half the time in the WC."

  
"_Excuse me_?" Of course she'd be that immature.

  
"Combat rations don't do good things to your insides. All that dense stuff doesn't want to come out."

  
Weiss put her head down on the desk. "_Seriously_?"

  
"Yeah, they put a laxative in the chocolate, but it doesn't help nearly-"

  
"Nora, _please_ stop." The desk was cool against her forehead. It helped her think. "So if I feed them nothing but combat rations, the absolute best food from the standpoint of weight-to-space-ratios, and still acceptably priced per-unit, their morale is going to be..."

  
"In the toilet."

  
Weiss just sighed. She'd set herself up for that one. "So what do you propose we do instead?"

  
"I mean, good food? Veggies, fruits, cake?"

  
"_How_? This site is five hundred klicks from the nearest flyspeck of civilization!" Weiss started digging through her papers, looking for the map. Maybe _seeing_ it would drive home the impossibility of the logistical situation for Nora.

  
"Okay, then why are we garrisoning it?"

  
She was _infuriating_. "It doesn't matter. We've been told to keep it supplied, and that's what we have to do."

  
"Honestly, this seems like a really bad idea. What could we _possibly_ be getting there that's _that_ valuable? How much does it cost to keep them supplied for a month?"

  
Weiss read off the current total off her worksheet. Even for her, it _was_ a pretty absurd cost. And she **still** hadn't added in the cost of munitions.

  
Nora hopped off the table and slammed her fists into it. "I say we march upstairs and tell the brass that the logistical situation is untenable."

  
"We _can't_ do that, Nora! It's a test! There isn't any 'brass!' Professor Baphukile is grading us on how well we handle this. It's _supposed_ to be hard!"

  
"What, you're not going to stick up for yourself?" Nora carelessly flipped through the papers, several of them drifting off of the table onto the floor. She pulled out the map. "Look at this. Five hundred klicks of untamed wilderness, crawling with Grimm, and we don't know _what_ we're defending, or why we even need to defend it from the Grimm. Or even if its the Grimm that we're trying to defend it from!" She pounded her fists on the table again. "This is not a situation where you just go along with it, and don't ask questions!"

  
Weiss hated that Nora had good points. "But it's our job! And what about need-to-know? Maybe we're just not cleared to know!"

  
"We're _Logistics_. We need to know what to order. Does this base get shipments of POWs? Medical cadavers? Dust? Holding tanks for Grimm? What?" Nora rapped her knuckles on the desk. "If they don't tell us, they can organize their own supply."

  
"What are you proposing?"

  
"That you finish all the math you want, but we include a personal note that morale will stink, that this proposal is pouring lien into a hole in the ground, and that we strongly advise against a deployment this long." Nora's eyes brightened. "And then, we wait for the conspiracy we just uncovered to try to kill us, and then we break our way up their chain of command until they spill the beans."

  
Weiss sighed. "Did you actually go through all that just to indulge one of your fantasies?"

  
"Nope! Don't _you_ think it's suspicious, Weiss?"

  
It was. It really was. Not even SDC recon teams operated this far out for this long. "...Yes."

  
"So we just _tell_ Professor Baphukile that. I mean, she keeps saying the details are important. And all the details are pointing to this being really suspicious. Isn't it our job to point that out?"

  
"Our _job_ is to do the math."

  
Nora rolled her eyes extravagantly. "Yeah, but our _responsibility_ is to do the right thing." She grinned. "And if that leads to a daring commando raid on a secret base five hundred klicks from anywhere, that's just a bonus!"

  
Weiss returned her forehead to the desk. "Okay, Nora, fine. You draft the letter, and I'll finish figuring out the munitions."

  
"Great!" Nora finally, _finally_ actually sat down in her chair. "Uhhh, Weiss?"

  
She squeezed her eyes shut. Asked, in her most patient voice, "Yes, Nora?"

  
"Do you have a pen I can borrow?"

* * *

  
**End of Semester Test Results**  
**Group**: Schnee-Valkyrie  
**Grade**: A+  
**Professor's notes**: Gutsy, ladies. Very gutsy. Dr. Oobleck will be giving a short lecture when we start the second semester, about the Gloaming Hills black site. Feel free to do your own research in advance of that, but be careful. War crimes a-plenty. Excellent work being the only group to twinge onto the fact that something was wrong. And, for bonus points, you managed a better efficiency than our records of the site actually show. The extra copies of your letter, with the note about them being forwarded to the media in the event of your death or disappearance, was a nice touch. If the first whistleblower had done that, maybe history would be different. Have a nice break, and see you back for the second semester.


End file.
